Too much of a good thing

Help your employees channel passion

Australian comedy duo Roy and HG famously quip that “Too much sport is barely enough!” But sometimes too much can be more than enough.

An article by HRM notes while every organisation strives for engaged, passionate employees, too much passion can lead to “passion fatigue” and burnout.

Τhe industries most at risk of having employees with passion fatigue?

• Non-profit
• Healthcare
• Teaching
• Legal professionals who represent marginalised groups
• Professions with strong individual focus (sales and accounting, for example)

Often employees in these industries care too much about their stakeholders or they find the emphasis on individual performance too much.

The article notes a number of red flags for which to look in employees. These are:

• Perfectionism—typically expressed as an “all-or-nothing” attitude
• Neuroticism
• Introversion
• Inability to say no
• Inability to separate work from concept of self—“my work is my life”

You should also note whether employees are “tuning out at work, drinking more coffee than usual, making more mistakes or losing a bit of their passion. . . . They might also be more volatile, withdrawn, combative or irritable, or show up to work looking tired.”

And usually these employees won’t share their struggles until they’re already at breaking point.

So, what can you as an employer do to mitigate the potential of passion fatigue in your employees?

• Shift focus from individual performance by incorporating more group incentives
• Build more of a team culture
• Trust employees with decisions
• Help employees prioritise tasks and review workloads

The authors make an interesting sidenote about the effects of COVID-19: don’t assume everything is back to normal. Over the past few years, we’ve been operating with a “fight of flight” mentality where everything is urgent. So, help your employees better understand what the organisation’s priorities are so they can understand what’s really important.

The article reported an alarming statistic. Some 67 per cent of people couldn’t talk about their mental health at work, and all of them were often or always burned out. other reason why it’s important you develop support systems, including peer support, within the organisation to minimise the potential impact of passion fatigue.

---

Photograph: Freepik.